Friday April 8th
It's hot today.
Last Monday, walking out of the Nice train station, we're like "hey it's so warm, let's walk on the sunny side of the street" , today, its like "it's way too hot, let's walk in the shade!"
We took the bus to VilleFrance Sur Mer, which is the next town east of Nice, about a 20 minute ride. It's the cruise ship port for Nice because it has a deep harbour. It was the home of the US sixth fleet at the end of the 2nd world war.
We visit every time and I know the bus stop, it's very close to us, but, this time they decided to move it 100 feet away, and on the other side of the street. We managed to run across in a break of the traffic and jumped on.
It's a busy little fishing port, that traps tourists as well as fish, but when we arrived it was still morning, and quiet. Walking involves a lot of up and down steep hills and steps.
We had our obligatory baguette and cheese in the town park, and returned home. Walked into old nice to make a reservation for supper tomorrow and then had a glass of wine on the terrasse just next to our building. In the shade .
Had a Skype video call to meet the Ukrainian lady we've connected with, who is coming to Canada. She has family in Kiev and parents in Donbas who don't want to leave. She was working remotely in Turkey but her visa there expires in May.
Her Canadian visa is approved, and she has sent her passport to the embassy for final clearance. We were able to give her ideas of cities but at this point she had no idea where she will go, but will try and find the job first.
She chose Canada because she's heard it's safe. A huge leap of faith that so many refugees from war torn countries, to Canada must make.
She likes the sound of Toronto or Montreal. We're researching support groups for her in Ontario. She seems very determined and calm, but her immediate problem she tells us will be money to rent, so she needs to find a job at the same time as accommodation.
Nice now has some electric buses, silent and no diesel fumes.
French dogs respected the sign
We always look, and sometimes find English language books in this pop up library
Fort at the top of the mountain (Boron) between Nice and VilleFrance, taken from VilleFrance
And here's the other side of that Fort, taken from our balcony,
The cafe for our apéros, next door to us
Walked the prom this afternoon along with half of the population of Nice it seems. School holidays have begun. Sun, sun sun. The patios filled.
We are normally here in January-February, temperatures around 15-20c, and the Niçoise are wrapped up in coats and scarves, while we are normally in shirt sleeves.
Today, 22c, and half of the niçoise on the street still wearing coats or jackets.
Count the people with coats, or carrying coats because they thought it might be cold...
The planes fly low over the prom, the airport is at the end of the bay. I need more practice taking photos of planes and seagulls, I always loose them in my view finder. I have more success just pointing the camera in the general vicinity and shooting randomly, but that's cheating surely?
No umbrellas, they would have been roasting at the tables.
On the prom all the blue chairs were full but we found a photo op in the tourist bureau when I picked up a bus map. The transit company, Lignes D'Azur, has updated their website, which means it's now unfathomable, I don't like change! I always prefer paper maps.
After Napoleon lived on our street, he lived in this grander house, very near the opera house. And something I learned on the walking tour in Paris. When you see large front doors, They were designed to allow a horse and carriage to pass through into an interior courtyard.
Our favourite crêperie has closed, so we found another with 5 star google reviews and we were not disappointed. Very friendly owner, sat outside in the pocket sized square next to a stone fountain. And they had our favourite cider, Kerne..We'll return.
We forgot to take photos of the main course, because we were hungry, here's a partially eaten caramel crepe..
Sunday April 10th
Lazy morning, in the afternoon we walked to a church for a free Nice symphony concert. In our winter trips they have been held every Sunday in a church around the corner from us. This concert, the last unfortunately in the winter series, was in a different church about 20 mins walk. We had a chance to see some more on Nice on the way.
The church was in better repair than the Port church, and warmer, but then previously it was always January or February.
We recognized a few of the musicians from 3 years ago.
Two video clips of the music
I particularly liked this piece
Supper was left over leak and potato soup. Better with age!
And in local island news, I was sitting on the couch around supper time here and checked my home thermostat which is connected to the wifi. It showed not connected. When I went on the BC hydro site I could see why. A rare April snow fall (I know, I know, I always claim it never snows on the island) on trees already in leaf, caused some to fall on hydro wires, and that in turn caused a transmission equipment failure.
On the BC hydro site it was red all over our region. Our friend Sandra who is looking after our house, advised it came on, and off and on again, that's never a good thing either because of the risk of power surges frying equipment.
Some non-island friends ask why electricity wires are above ground and not buried. The island is really just a mountain in the sea, burying anything means drilling through rock in most places, so difficult, also our part of the island is rural, low density means the cost to bury lines apportioned over the small number of dwellings is prohibitive.
A nice fractal composition
Monday April 11
Carrefour supermarket morning, groceries for this week.
In the afternoon we walked up Castle Hill which is between our apartment and Old Town Nice, so we could photograph the views.
Some remains of the old castle
Just like Vancouver Island, snow on the mountains, warm at sea level, (except for this week)
We toured the observatory on our last trip
The airport, built out into the sea. Waited patiently for a plane to land, alas, no luck.
Old town Nice directly below.
Nice is in a valley, surrounded by mountains and facing the sea. No space at all, all housing is stacked up on the sides.
The port with the ferry to Corsica in dock.
At the Jewish cemetery, a memorial to all the people who were sent through the Nice train station to concentration camps during the Nazi occupation.
Pizza from next door, for supper.
And tomorrow...Italy!
So much to do. Beautiful blue sky. With all your walking and hill climbing you deserve to treat yourselves to crepes(one of my favourites). Church looks amazing. Wonderful mosaics.
ReplyDeleteHad no power outages where Sharon and I were at Kingfisher Resort and spa. Yoga 2x a day with great walks. Enjoyed some great restaurants. And of course the Hot Chocolate shop in Courtenay. We were spoiled with hot tub, steam room, heated pool, and sauna. Beautiful setting.
Back to reality. But the sun is shining with temps to drop to 0* tonight.it’S a cold spring.. enjoy the heat! MJ
I’ve been waiting for this. It was a lovely accompaniment to my morning coffee.
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